AmCham meeting with the Ministry of International Economic Integration and Reforms

AmCham Board Directors met with the representatives of the Ministry of International Economic Integration and Reforms, to speak in the name of the businesses about the concerns and suggestions with regards to the current Armenian economic situation.

The first question raised was the Armenian Government’s position in the country’s transition to the EEU and the level of awareness of the businesses about the changes in the legislation.

Vache Gabrielyan introduced the process of the work in the ministry and how the information is being processed. He explained that the information received by their office is distributed to the appropriate ministries who are in turn are responsible for sharing the info among the sectoral representatives to eventually have the business community updated on the changes. He explained that the information must be distributed but not necessarily analyzed for the businesses.

AmCham requested the Ministry representatives include AmCham in the list of the organizations that the ministry secretariat informs about any changes.

AmCham also requested the ministry to provide AmCham member organizations with the opportunity of hearing from one of their experts how the legislations and the amendments should be treated in order to have them processed in the most rational manner in the sense of time, since the EEU transition is a matter of an extensive and continuous work.

The second question raised dealt with the issues related to the Tax Council.

The AmCham Board assessed the quality of the analytical work carried out within the Ministry of Finance regarding the creation of the new Tax Code, but AmCham also stressed its indignation with regards to the inappropriate level of communication and consultancy of the Council with the businesses.

AmCham informed the Ministry about it initiative to gather a multilateral meeting with the participation of the USAID, WB, IFC and appropriate ministry representatives to share with the concerns of the businesses with regards to the new Tax Code.

Vache Gabrielyan assured the AmCham Board that the businesses should not panic, since the code is not ready yet, and that the business community will be provided with the opportunity of making its comments when the paper is ready, and that the code will not be sent for the approval to the parliament until it is publicly consulted with the businesses.

Third question raised regarded the sectoral technical regulations.

The AmCham Board requested to be provided with the opportunity of aggregating issues from its members with regards to the technical regulations and having them sent to the Ministry for review, that will in its turn send those to the appropriate ministries for investigation.